Just when I thought All Was Lost
Allow me to introduce Ronnie, a student of mine back in the eighties. He, along with other students were searching for information about post-Civil War times. Ronnie sat alone at a table with his head resting on an open book on American History.
“Hey, Ronnie. How’s it going?“
“Not going anywhere. It’s boring”.
I looked at the open book. “Have you read this page?” Ronnie shook his head.
“It’s stupid. It happened more than a hundred years ago.”
Hmmmm. It probably would not work to argue this point.
“So, Ronnie, here’s the thing. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll finish. So read this whole portion here and find something to tell me about. Something weird or funny or, if you want, stupid.”
Ronnie looked down. Okay. I’ll read about this guy. He put his finger on a picture of Edwin Stanton.
I had no idea how this approach might work but I did know that Ronnie was a challenge to motivate. I went over to look at the progress of some of the other students. Most were well into their research while Ronnie hadn’t even begun.
Just ten minutes later Ronnie rushed over.
“It’s this guy, Stanton.” He chuckled. “He locked himself into his office for about three months.”
“Wow. Why?”
“Don’t you know? Just a minute. I’ll find out.”
That was enough to get him going. During the next couple of days he kept coming back to tell me more and to pose more questions. We found that the text he was using did not supply the answers and information Ronnie wanted so he asked the librarian for help. They found more books and, although we did not have Google or its like yet, they did find information on the internet.
The rest is what many teachers dream about happening. Ronnie’s enthusiasm inspired other students to ask questions and look for answers. They had animated discussions about reconstruction, about the thirteenth, fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments and, about the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson and more.
Slavery was discussed as was the treatment of former slaves when reconstruction was weakened and finally abandoned. Students drew conclusions about how that affected the treatment of black citizens for years, up until and including the present.
While most of them expressed an interest in learning more and being more understanding, none of the students seemed at all damaged by learning this part of our history.
Laurie, one of the students, put it this way. “My mom was in the civil rights protests in the sixties. I told her what we were studying and she told me about President Lyndon Johnson and the Congress passing the voting rights act in the sixties.”
Somebody shouted out, “Right on.”
You say you want to know more about why Stanton locked himself in his office? Look it up.
Note: The image at the top of this page is from the Library of Congress and shows Edwin Stanton.